Viciously in Love

Forty three.

Songs for this chapter: - Wrong Direction - Hailee Steinfeld
- Broken - Isak Danielson

   "I don't understand anything. I never did and I never will." I mumble frustrated.

   "You will. You're a smart girl. You just need to practice a lot." he says looking me in the eyes.

   "We've been doing this for weeks and we got nowhere."

   "That's not true. You were a lot worse when we started."

   I give him the evil eye and he laughs. It's true. I was worse. But it doesn't mean I'm good now. It just means that I don't suck that much anymore.

Jake keeps giving me different exercises and I keep telling him that I want a break. My brain hurts, I'm bored and I'm also hungry. I hate math. Even now when I'm doing it with the guy that I love. I just can't keep up.

   "You forgot to divide." he corrects me and I slam my pencil down.

   "I give up." I mumble between my teeth gathering my stuff.

   "Oh, come on! It was the only mistake." he says frustrated as well.

   "Exactly. One mistake and everything goes down the toilet. And there you go. I just failed math."

   I put my stuff in my backpack and I leave the library. We've been here for almost 2 hours and we've done nothing. The only thing that I hate more than math is wasting time doing math when I know I will still suck. 

   "I told you, you're getting better. I don't get why you're overreacting." he says when he catches up.

   "You don't get it." I stop walking. "I can do math just fine when you're around to tell me what I'm doing wrong. But when I'm alone at a test for example... I lose it." I sigh.

   "We'll keep practicing." he says tossing his hand over my shoulder. "I'm not giving up." he smiles. "Are you hungry?"

   "Always." I say making him laugh.

   *

"Same order?" he asks and I nod. "Ok. I'll be right back."

   Almost every single time we go out to eat we come to the same McDonald's we wet to on Valentine's Day. The same restaurant, the same food, the same table over an over again. It's our thing. We have a thing.

   Jake's phone lights up and when I look at it I notice Ashley's name on the screen. I frown and I turn it around now facing the table. Why would Ashley call him? I look at him like he can give me an answer for the questions in my head.

   I turn the phone around again and I read the message.

   What are you doing? Are you with Nikkie again?

   What is that supposed to mean? Why is Ashley calling him? Why is she texting him? Am I supposed to be Nikkie?  

   "Is everything ok?" he asks when he comes back and puts the food on the table.

   "Who's Nikkie?" I ask frowning.

   "What?" he frowns too.

   "Who's Nikkie?" I repeat getting tense. "And why is Ashley texting you, asking if you're with her?"

   "You. You're Nikkie. She keeps calling you like that and I keep telling her to shut up. And I've no idea why Ashley is texting me. Have you been looking through my phone?" he says pissed.